In mobile phone systems, the 4th generation is widely prevailing in 2017, and in 2020, it is expected that the 5th generation (5G) will start to prevail. In both generations, a linear power amplifier (PA) is used. In case of 4G, in addition, such as the envelope tracking (ET) and the digital predistortion (DPD) systems are applied to improve efficiency and linearity. In case of 5G, because of wider modulation band width and parallel operation under the multiple-input and multiple output (MIMO) mode, it might be difficult to apply all systems as those of 4G. Therefore linear PA for 5G will require higher performance with standalone operation. The linear amplifier, in spite of its name, operates non-linearly. In this paper, the non-linear operations of the linear amplifier and their effects on the linearity characteristics are reviewed. After that, impacts of non-linear elements of a hetero junction bipolar transistor (HBT), by analyzing single stage amplifier, are stated. In addition, major PA architectures including ET and DPD systems are reviewed.